P is for...

The white walls will soon disappear and in its place will be:

• ocean turquoise and golden sand,
• starlet gold and seductive mood and
• coriander.

Thanks Amy for the inspirations, suggestions and helping me make some amazing choices that will make my place feel like home.  And most importantly, thanks for bringing the amazing chocolate cake.  It was delicious!  Very excited for the ideas to soon become a reality.

Pied Piper of Bandra

Thursday night, Bandra had it's own Pied Piper.  Kabir; a Buddhist monk.

After a lovely all-you-can-eat delicious Chinese dinner, we were walking home.  Kabir noticed that he was leading five lovely lady expats down the street.

It's common here not to walk on the sidewalks.

It's also common for everyone to stare at each other.  It's especially common to stare at any expats.

So, as usual we were walking single file in the street.  He wondered what others were thinking seeing us, given the above norms.  

At one point he kicked his feet up, jig style, and said he looked like the Pied Piper.  Pretty funny image strolling down the suburbs of Mumbai.  A monk followed by five ladies.

He's been helping several of us to improve our meditation practices.  And with this help, he's definitely the kind of Pied Piper I would follow.

The Good Word

I'm getting fully reimbursed for my damaged shipment.  Yay!  Yahoo!  

Word came this morning.  I squinched up my face as I opened the PDF thinking the worst.  As I scrolled down to page two and looked at the breakdown for reimbursement, everything was in full.  They came through.  

I feel like running around my apartment, very carefully (don't want to re-injure my healing ankle).  I feel like dancing.  I'm just so relieved.  

Short.  Sweet.  Simple.  Smiling.  

My Book of Threes

Today in a meeting, I was reminded that bad things come in threes.  Or so says mysticism, Christianity and hey, even an triangle has three sides.

Bad Thing #1 - My gastrointestinal awfulness
I am feeling SOOOO much better today.   I actually ate a sandwich for lunch.  And nobody told me I was pale.  As Ronnie Woo Woo would say, "Megan ate a sandwich!  Woooo!"  Chicago friends, I hope you know the voice to use.

Bad Thing #2 - My shipment
Booo!  Hiss!

Bad Thing #3 - Loosing my debit card
Yeah.  Add that to the list.  I just realized that last night while paying for my physical therapy.  Since I'd been sick  and pretty much housebound or at school, I knew it happened at a cash machine last Friday.  Not so good at all.

But the last thing, Bad Thing #3,  it helped me to turn a corner.  When I called today to cancel my debit card, I was informed that it had already been cancelled. I wondered if perhaps it was ASB (since I had them in the loop) who'd helped to do this for me.

"It's been cancelled since September 9th madam,"  said the help line rep.

"Really?"  I asked.

"Yes.  It was found at a cash station and the person called us to report it lost."

"Really?"  I asked again this time my voice went higher.

The answer confirmed that yep, it had been found at the cash station where I'd used it.  Talk about karma!  I've been trying to send rainbows and little smiley face flowers out into the world amidst all the chaos that these past two weeks have offered and I got one back.

So, My Book of Threes is closed now.  If you look on the last page, you'll see The End (which I hate seeing in books) is actually there.  And right below it is a daisy with a smiley face too.  Take that!

Rough Waves

It's been a rough one folks.  Anger poured in as I awoke in the middle of the night and had to climb out the foot of the bed onto books scattered across my floor to the bathroom.

The anger surged as I started going through things.  Many had dried.  That was good news.  I had notified school I was coming in late due to still being sick (although improvement again) and that I needed to assess the damage in daylight.

My housekeeper, Espe and I, began going through the books.  Sigh.  Gasp. We peeled each page apart in my lovely children's books apart.  Pages tore and wrinkled and fell apart in our hands.  27 are a loss.

Then as we finished putting things away. We were ready to make the bed.  I thought, this could be the redemption.  Eeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr (imagine that game show buzzer again)!

The mattress was soaked.  One whole end of it complete with rust marks and a puncture.  After touching it, the water was visible on your hand. This is a brand-new mattress folks.  I laid on it for less than 15 minutes in the Back to Bed showroom.  Brand-new.  The anger continued to grow.

That's when I took some video of the damage.  Showing the chaos caused to my life and the damages. I played them back to make sure they were good quality and I could hear the anger in my voice.

I filled out my claims form and got ready for work.

Finding a rick was easy and as we began to drive down my street, I looked at my phone.  It was only 11 a.m.  Why did it feel like it was 5 p.m.?

As we entered into Bandra Kurla, lots of people began to notice me in the rick.  They were on motorcycles and in ricks and walking.  Not that it's unusual but maybe I started to notice them.  They smiled and waved. That's when I was reminded about my attitude.  I can feel crappy about this entire thing because frankly as my dear friend Erica reminded me, "It's sh*@#y!"  But I also can choose how I respond.

People at ASB are wonderful.  They listened.  They supported.  They shared their shipping woes.  They had a hard time understanding Aussie accents which lead to laughs.  One friend, dear Debbie, even shared some yummy Ferrero Rocher to eat when I do feel better.  So can't wait to eat it.  It's like torture!

But the goodness didn't end there.  I met with an amazing team of teachers who have set a goal to map their writing units.  And they're including me!

Books I'd ordered several weeks ago arrived.

The moving company and ASB checked in several times about filing the claim for the damages.  Things are moving forward and I'm optimistic.

At the end of the day, Jenn asked if I wanted to take a rick rather than the van.  That sounded delightful.  She encouraged me to go to PT.

I did go.  I now have my first Indian mehndi.

Well, it's really more like taping to help decrease the swelling but it's pretty and hot pink.

PT seems like it could be a good fit and will help me to get stronger which means things like yoga and other exercise is coming my way.

On my walk home from PT, I stopped at a shop to inquire about curtain rods and fabric.  People are coming tomorrow to give me estimates.  I bought shower curtain hangers and now have not only the towels from the U.S. but also my curtain as well.

Then I got to talk to my mom.  That helped the most of all.  It usually does.

So, all in all, it wasn't such a good day.  I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.  In the big picture, things are okay.  It's just stuff but when you add other things to it, like illness and culture shock and settling in, it just all feels so much bigger.  Just gotta keep saying those things out-loud that are good so when the storm cloud comes again (because I'm sure it's on it's way now), I can remember the good too.

The Good, The Bad and the Wet

The good news is I'm feeling a bit better today.  My stomach is feeling um, more settled.  I'm still exhausted though but progress is progress.  A 2nd grader today told me how tired and pale I looked.  Then his friend added that I also had lots of spots on my face that looked like zits.  I told them I was sick.  They shrugged their shoulders and walked away to check-out books.  Gotta love the honesty of 7-year-olds.

The other good news is my shipment arrived. It arrived early this evening.

The bad news...

Does it look right to you?

Somethings didn't even come in a box because they had broken.

It got a bit soggy on the Mumbai port.

The agent's on his way to help me with filing the claim.  Damages include:  pillows, water stain on my box spring, lots of wet packaging and clothes.  Tomorrow morning in daylight will be when I can really see what's happened.

My biggest loss? My books. 27 in all were ruined and/or damaged.   I know in theory they can dry but they'll never close the same.  They'll have bent and twisted corners and water stains.  Several had been signed too by the author so that's my low blow.

My book's turned into soup!

I had been waiting a while in the apartment and when I heard there was damage, I didn't swear one bit. Just said, "Oh my god" about 15 times and wandered around assessing the damage.  I was either channeling some zen master, overly tired from being malnourished or it was the kindness of the delivery men who told me they'd never seen such a mess.

For tonight I've got a new decorating style...

Living room complete with clothes and toiletries laying out to dry.

Kitchens are also great places for drying clothes.

My guest room's all ready for your visit.

My brand new bed doesn't look quite so new anymore.

So, with the good, comes the bad and it'll get sorted out.  I'm proud of myself for keeping cool considering the awful surprise and also for doing it with being sick.  This is all making me stronger, right?

Note to those ever moving to a monsoon area.  Make sure your movers at your origin, line your lift/crate with plastic because most likely it'll sit in the rain someplace along the way.  

I'd like a Gin, Tonic and E.coli on the Rocks.

Maybe this is why I've been feeling so awful?

The school nurse sent this article link today along with the dos and don'ts of monsoon season in the city.  

A few of the Dos:

• Wash your hands,
• Drink filtered and branded water only,
• Consume only cooked foods.

A few of the Don'ts:

• Consume foods from roadside vendors (learned that a long time ago when I watched Outsourced),
• Consume ice from unknown sources,
• Eat salads in restaurants.

I thought I'd figured out when I had caught this bug (pesto sauce on some pasta) but perhaps it's also been sneaking into my water filtered water each day.  Gross!

Many American friends always think I'm strange to drink out of drinking fountains and to fill up my water bottle in bathroom sinks.  Really, the water for the most part in the U.S. is pretty great and clean. Bottled water's not necessary for the most part.

In Brazil I was careful.   In India I've been more so.  Guess sometimes though you can't battle what you can't see in kitchens and so on.

Here's to hoping this bug dies soon because I'm turning into a brat eating the B.R.A.T. diet.